Technical Project Assistant

FAO in collaboration with the Government of Finland is aiming at supporting the government of Myanmar in the development and implementation of a two-phase project for a new national scale Forest Inventory System over the years 2020 - 2025. Phase 1 of the project covers activities of Readiness and Testing, and Phase 2 the full Implementation. A particular and innovative feature of this project is to develop a “globally relevant approach to National Forest Inventory (NFI) and National Forest Monitoring and Information Systems (NFMIS) explicitly within the framework of a Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) and conflict sensitivity”, and support the Government of Myanmar in its implementation in the national territory”. Thus, the project fills an important gap in (global) approaches to National Forest Inventory and Myanmar´s existing National Forest Monitoring System, with no national forest inventory having ever been fully conducted in the country. In addition, at present, no guidelines nor best practices are available in terms of how to implement inventories and other monitoring activities in areas with security and conflict issues or territories with mixed governance systems.

Myanmar is the country with the third highest deforestation rate in the world, after Brazil and Indonesia, and has significant potential for Climate Change mitigation through REDD as well as related multiple benefits. A functional NFI system is necessary not only for decision making in the national context but also an essential requirement for the fulfilment of conditions, which enable the country to participate in REDD including results-based payments. The latter is potentially a source of substantial development finance for the country after 2020 and communities where REDD actions are eventually implemented will directly or indirectly benefit from them.

The project will establish the capacity in Myanmar to develop updated reports on the state of the forests at national scale and the scale of states and regions as well as for several other sub-national user-defined reporting units. The results of the NFI are expected to contribute to evidence based strategy and policy planning in the forest sector and to reduce controversies among stakeholders and sectoral policy actors derived from different, sometimes opposing, views in forest policy discussions through updated data on the state and quality of forests.

Through the UN-REDD Programme a general design, sampling approach and initial elements of a data analysis and management system have already been established during 2017 - 2019. Testing of NFI field methodologies has been conducted in several land areas and forest types in central and North-western Myanmar as well as in Mangroves during 2019. The final NFI field methodology, data collection approaches and a draft estimation design have been developed too, in collaboration with the Myanmar Forest Department, FAO and the Finnish Natural Resources Institute, Luke, and is available as of end of 2019.

The project will be divided in two phases, namely\: (1) Phase I of Readiness and testing, and (2) Phase II of full implementation. Phase I will cover the development of a package of safeguard instruments aimed at guaranteeing that the project is implemented in the framework of a HRBA, and that conflict sensitivity and do-no-harm strategies are demonstrated throughout the project. These instruments will be established and institutionalized into country level actions through an open access based data sharing policy, development of a stakeholder engagement and communication plan that includes how to communicate grievances and approaches for their resolution, with linkage to the Myanmar REDD Safeguard Information System. During Phase I data collection and some initial reporting for areas not considered as conflict prone will also be developed. Phase II will involve the completion of data collection in the remaining areas. When data collection is complete for all areas, a full data analysis and national scale reports as well as results for other reporting units can be developed. Phase II will also develop full reports on the state of the forests and tree resources in Myanmar. During Phase II, the NFMIS will be completed with agreed data sharing protocols, web-based data and information retrieval tools for interactive and customized reporting, corresponding support services and the medium to long term institutional and operational arrangements supported for a permanent NFI and NFMIS in Myanmar including the corresponding capacity building for relevant Myanmar stakeholders.

This project will be strongly linked to other projects and programmes working in similar areas and therefore needs to collaborate and coordinate its activities with those projects. These refer particularly to\: the Mangrove project under the global UN-REDD TA Programme under its outputs 2 (A comprehensive monitoring system of land-use and land-cover along coastal areas of Myanmar); the GCF readiness project for “developing systems and capacities for ecosystem-based climate investment, decision making and monitoring” particularly the development of the biophysical component for the Decision Support System and the deliverables under the “Emission Assessment from Forest and Land Use Sector” for piloting sites of the Chindwin river basin; the OneMap project of Myanmar with support from the Swiss Development Cooperation; the Servir Mekong Spatial Data for Development Programme, which developed a new draft wall-to-wall Forest and Land Cover map for Myanmar with time series 2000 – 2017 as part of the Regional Land Cover Monitoring System (LCMS) project; the Myanmar component of the Japanese-funded project “Mitigation potential of global actions to enhance forest carbon stocks”; and the UNREDD National Programme, which is in its final stages of concluding in 2020, among others.

The Technical Project Assistant works under the overall supervision of the FAO Representative in Myanmar, the general supervision of the Assistant FAO Representative (Programme), and the direct supervision of the National Project Coordinator (NPC) of the NFI-NFMIS-HRBA project in coordination with the Chief Technical Advisor (CTA), the International HRBA Advisor and the National Project Director (NPD) of the project

• The Technical Project Assistant will be part of the PMU and work closely with NPC, CTA and other PMU staff in all technical matters related to the project.

• Support the collaboration with staff of Programme Management Unit (PMU), the Forest Department (FD) under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Conservation (MONREC) and other relevant stakeholders
• Support in the implementation of all technical activities of the NFI-NFMIS-HRBA project included in the Annual Work Programme (AWP) and the linkage to work with other related projects such as the UNREDD Mangrove project, the GCF Readiness project, the OneMap project Myanmar, the LCMS project of Servir Mekong for Myanmar, the Myanmar component of the Japanese funded FLR project on forest carbon enhancement, and the out phasing UNREDD National Programme in Myanmar.
• Organize regular meetings of technical working or focus groups for consultations and feedback on NFI-NFMIS approaches at different scales (national, subnational);
• Support PMU, consultants and other staff of FAO in coordination with the FD in the planning and organisation of training events, consultative workshops and technical sessions as part of the implementation of the NFI-NFMIS-HRBA project and the remaining parts of the NFMS and FRL Action plans of Myanmar;
• Produce reports and minutes on the results of technical workshops, seminars, technical and consultative meetings carried out in the context of the project;
• Provide updated information on project progress for the NPC, CTA and FAO country office for different reporting needs;
• Support coordination with other forestry-related projects as required;
• Liaise with government ministries in Nay Pyi Taw to facilitate the activities under the NFI-NFMIS-HRBA project like trainings, workshops, seminars, technical and consultative meetings;
• Assist the CTA and NPC in the coordination with the Forest Department and other agencies;
• Undertake any other relevant tasks assigned by FAO in the context of the project.

• Graduate degree in Forestry, Environmental Science or a closely related field
• At least 3 years of work experience in forestry, preferably forest inventory, forest monitoring and remote sensing and project work related to REDD
• Fluency in both English and Myanmar language, written and spoken
• Myanmar Nationality

• Strong inter-personal
• Teamwork
• Communication
• Building Effective Relationships
• Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

• Ability to share knowledge and experience
• Active towards continuous personal learning
• Strong analytical skills to master new subjects
• Ability to manage priorities and meet deadlines
• Ability to work towards results based management and reporting
• Capacity for leadership and management
• Commitment to FAO´s mission and values
• Strong inter-personal and communication skills
• Good level of working knowledge of the English language
• Ability to build networks within Myanmar government institutions and with non-government organisations
• Strong networks within Myanmar non-government organisations and Myanmar government agencies
• Proficiency (user level) of computer applications (Word, Excel, PPT, etc.)